Analytics is an important tool to help inform you of what is happening on your site, now AND to provide you with new opportunities to explore through discovery. “But where do I start?” That’s a question that I hear way too often and that is because many are unaware of the many simple but effective features Google Analytics offers that can help to unlock the full potential of their site. There are dozens of these features that I have found to be extremely helpful, but for now, I’ll only focus on one of them: Goals!

What are goals? Goals measure how well your site fulfills target objectives. Some examples of goals you could have on your site are:

An order completion

The submission of a contact form

Video plays

PDF downloads

Time spent by a user on a specific blog post

Goals allow you to track how users are interacting with your site within a session. Find out how engaged your users actually are and use it to inform your marketing decisions.

Here are a few simple steps to follow to set up a goal and get started!

Admin

Goals

+ NEW GOAL

Choose a goal (template or custom)

Choose a Goal Description and select a Goal Type

Provide goal details. If necessary or wanted, create a funnel to see how a user progresses along the path to this goal.

Verify (test) your goal setup.

By tracking your goals you can better understand the needs of your site’s visitors. This information can be incorporated into marketing campaigns, and put you in front of your desired audience.

Our next blog will take a deeper dive into capitalizing on your site’s data by utilizing heat mapping. Stay tuned!